victory
Forms
- Plural
- victories
Definitions
1.The condition or state of having won a battle or competition, or having succeeded in an effort; (countable) an instance of this.
- It was a great victory on the battlefield.
- "Farewell," he said, "the only hope, which could have lighted me to fame or victory!"
- A hope, still indeed faint and indefinite, of victory and revenge, animated the party which had lately seemed to be extinct.
2.Alternative letter-case form of Victory (“(uncountable) the Roman goddess of victory, the counterpart of the Greek goddess Nike; also (countable), an artistic depiction of her, chiefly as a winged woman”).
1.Used to encourage someone to achieve success, or to celebrate a success or triumph.
- Victory! Victory! Russia's famish'd eagles / Dare not to prey beneath the crescent's light.
- Victory! Victory to the prostrate nations! / Bear witness Night, and ye mute Constellations / Who gaze on us from your crystalline cars! / Thoughts have gone forth whose powers can sleep no more! / Victory! Victory!
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1611
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English victory, victori, victorie (“supremacy, victory; a defeat or vanquishing, conquest; superior military force; might, power, strength; triumphal celebration or procession; monument commemorating a defeat; superior position, dominance; mastery; moral victory, vindication; success, triumph; redemption, salvation; resurrection of Jesus; means of achieving spiritual victory; reward for or token of perseverance in a spiritual struggle”) [and other forms], borrowed from Anglo-Norman victorie and Old French victorie, a variant of victoire (“victory, win”) (modern French victoire), from Latin victōria (“victory”), from victor (“champion, winner, victor; conqueror, vanquisher”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“to contain, envelop; to overcome”)) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). The English word is analysable as victor + -y (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting a condition, quality, or state), and displaced Middle English siȝe, sye.